UConn Never Really Had A Chance Vs. Louisville For ACC Berth

It wasn't that long ago that Louisville was considering downgrading its program to Division I-AA, the level that UConn competed at before 2000. Before Schnellenberger arrived in 1985, Louisville had a run of six consecutive losing seasons and attendance was sparse, with a season ticket base of fewer than 10,000. By the time he left for Oklahoma in 1994, there was a movement to build a stadium. By the time Jurich arrived in 1997, construction of Papa John's Cardinal Stadium was underway. Jurich continued the commitment to the football program, hiring the right coaches (John L. Smith, Bobby Petrino, Strong).

At UConn, the Huskies began a two-year transition to Division I-A in 2000 and joined the Big East Conference in 2004. Louisville, a I-A program since 1912, joined the Big East from Conference USA in 2005. Lew Perkins, UConn's athletic director at the time, hired Randy Edsall in 1998 to build UConn's program, but he left for Maryland two years ago and athletic director Jeff Hathaway hired Pasqualoni, whose coaching has produced unrest among fans.

UConn also is still in its Division I-A infancy. Louisville, despite joining a BCS conference only seven years ago, did have a long history to cultivate its program, with 16 bowl appearances before this year.

And Louisville's highly profitable basketball program enables it to invest in overall athletics — its $84 million athletic budget is $19 million more than UConn's. As Louisville's program has improved on and off the field, the recruiting net has widened — quarterback Teddy Bridgewater, a potential Heisman Trophy candidate next year, came to Louisville from Miami.

Under Strong, an Arkansas native who coached at Florida and South Carolina before Louisville, the Cardinals have done well recruiting players in Southern states such as Georgia, North Carolina and Florida.

According to Rivals.com, Louisville has finished ahead of UConn in recruiting class rankings in all but one year from 2005 to 2012. In 2009, UConn had the 75th-rated class while Louisville was at 76. Rivals ranks the quality of each incoming player and then grades the entire class.

The biggest gap was in 2011, when Louisville had the 29th-rated class in the country and UConn had the 101st. In 2012, Louisville was 42nd and UConn was 77th.

A move to the ACC will only boost Louisville's recruiting. Likewise, it won't be helpful to UConn at a time when it needs the boost to get better players into its program.

But Manuel points to what UConn can offer, including its facilities. And there is an effort to bolster the out-of-conference schedule — Michigan and Maryland are coming to Rentschler next season, Tennessee is visiting in 2015 and Virginia will be in East Hartford in 2016.

"Recruiting is about really busting your butt and working at it," Manuel said. "We have to sell ourselves, we have to be better at selling what we have and what we're going to be and what we want to be and what we have been. And the greatness of the academics."

For now, UConn is "stuck in the middle," said Jeremy Crabtree, ESPN senior coordinator of recruiting. "They've watched some teams that are similar caliber, foundation-wise, make that leap to the ACC and it's got to be frustrating."

A move to the ACC could only help UConn with recruiting.

"We all know the Northeast isn't a huge destination spot for blue-chip recruits," Crabtree said. "If you have that opportunity to play in bigger games and carry a larger conference banner, it certainly does resonate with kids and open up new territories. It would certainly help the Huskies coaching staff to walk into high schools in Florida or in the Carolinas or in Ohio or in Texas with some conference stability, and the opportunity to sell that they're part of something that's larger than the Big East is right now."